After Delhi and Punjab, Goa third state on AAP radar

Panaji, June 28 (IANS) After Punjab, where multiple surveys have tipped the AAP to win the assembly polls, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday said Goa could be the third state for his party to wrest power.

After a meeting with fisherfolk in the port town of Vasco, to kick off the party’s Goa Dialogues, Kejriwal told the media that the AAP’s rise to power could rid Goa of its ills like corruption and the drug menace.

“Our party will win 35 (of the 40) seats. You will see. People need new hope. The AAP is not a party, it is an ‘andolan’ (movement),” he said.

“In Delhi, we have a government and we have proved what we can do,” Kejriwal added.

The Goa assembly goes to the polls in early January.

“There are two important things in Goa. One is to eradicate corruption. The BJP and Congress are neck deep in corruption. And Goa’s culture, which is being slowly diminishing, needs to be saved. This needs to be saved. It is most important,” Kejriwal said.

“Drugs are there because of corruption. Someone somewhere is accepting bribes to allow drugs being sold. Once corruption is eradicated, we will take strong action against drugs.”

The Delhi Chief Minister also said that the two key issues in Goa were corruption in public office and the rapid dilution of its culture and identity.

“There are two important things in Goa. One is to eradicate corruption. BJP and Congress are neck deep in corruption.

“And Goa’s culture, which is being slowly diminishing, needs to be saved. This needs to be saved. It is most important.”

Accusing both the Congress and the BJP of being “neck-deep” in corruption, the Aam Aadmi Party founder said that his party represented an option to people of Goa.

“They both fool people together. Both are completely corrupt parties who have looted the people. People know this now.

“Earlier they did not have an option. They have it now. And in Delhi, people have seen. It has been a year and a half and the works we promised we are executing one by one, whether it is power, slums.